Will the Economic Meltdown Push Fixing a Broken Immigration System to the Back Burner?

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted March 13, 2009.

What, precisely, that will look like remains to be seen. In 2007, the fragile coalition of groups that advocated CIR -- one that included the business community, human- and civil-rights activists, religious groups and other stakeholders -- fell apart over several issues, notably the inclusion of a guest-worker program that wouldn't allow migrant workers to eventually attain permanent legal status.

For progressive reformers, this recalled the disastrous Bracero Program of the 1950s, which in effect tied immigrant workers to their employers and was infamous for the abuses those ties allowed to flourish.

Another contentious issue in the 2007 bill was an attempt to shift the cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy from "family reunification" to a points system that would have increased the number of highly skilled and better-educated immigrants but virtually closed the door to lower-income workers -- those who make up the bulk of the illegal population. 

But those with whom I spoke are optimistic that a slightly different coalition will hold together. Simon Rosenberg, director of the New Democrat Network, a centrist group that's been in the thick of the immigration debate, told me, "if people want to resolve these issues, they can." He believes a modest guest-worker program is key to winning broad support, including the support of a number of Republicans.

"Getting 5 percent of the workforce out of the shadows, giving them the opportunity to unionize, getting them minimum wage protections -- this is such an important goal for progressives that they need to be willing to accept some compromise," he said. 

The original 2007 bill included a guest-worker program that would have allowed as many as 400,000 migrant workers, but an amendment halved that number, capping the number at 200,000 per year for two years. The guest-worker program was a key part of the bargain hammered out between McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in 2006.

Rosenberg fears that a bill without a guest-worker program may not earn the support of key members of the GOP, including McCain, who rightly feels a sense of ownership over the legislation.  "It's going to be hard without McCain, because no Republicans want to be seen running to his left on immigration," Rosenberg said. 

But compromise comes with potential pitfalls, foremost among them is the prospect that reformers would end up with a bill that's too far to the right to gain the support of the progressive community. As Rivlin recounts, that was a major issue in the past.

"In 2006, a bipartisan Senate bill crafted by Kennedy and McCain started in the center and was pulled to the right somewhat on its trip to the Senate floor and passage," he said. "In 2007, a weak and unpopular President Bush worked with the other Republican senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl …  It started farther right and continued to move right.  The workability of the bill was suspect and building support for the bill among pro-immigrant advocates was difficult, to say the least." 

Sharry promises a more progressive approach this time around.

"I suspect we'll see a legalization program that will be more affordable and straightforward to navigate, a greater emphasis on the aggressive enforcement of labor standards (such as wage theft, worker safety, classification of independent contractors, etc.), support for the equal treatment and social mobility of all low-wage workers, a more viable approach to employment verification than the dysfunctional E-Verify system [and] a strong family reunification component." (Sharry laid out this vision in greater detail in an AlterNet exclusive last year.) He added: "I think many of us have learned that the tensions between the left-leaning progressives and the centrist-leaning pragmatists in favor of reform have to be managed more adroitly and be seen as complementary rather than competitive." 

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Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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